Gov’t spent $700M promoting ObamaCare, despite Obama claim

President Obama contended that the government did not "make a hard sell" for Obamacare, despite his administration spending nearly $700 million to promote the law.

"We didn't make a hard sell," Obama said in the Rose Garden on Tuesday, praising the 7.1 million sign ups for the Affordable Care Act. "We didn't have billions of dollars of commercials like some critics did."

However, last July the Associated Press reported that Obamacare's marketing campaign would cost at least $684 million.

Taxpayer funding went to all 50 states in efforts to encourage people to enroll, including nearly $28 million for the Washington Health Benefit Exchange, for television, radio, print, and social media ads.

Oregon received $10 million to push the law, which it used to create advertisements that did not even mention the word "insurance."

The Portland advertising agency North, Inc., produced psychedelic cartoons for Cover Oregon that were described by Sen. Tom Coburn's (R., Okla.) Wastebook as "what appears to be Gumby riding on the Beatles' yellow submarine."